


This Story Does Not End With A Kiss

by partypaprika



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Kate Crackernuts (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 10:03:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6850258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partypaprika/pseuds/partypaprika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If I went back to the beginning, back where everything started, there was Anne. Of course you want to know about the lamb and the dancing and everything else that came after that, but that’s putting the horse before the cart, so to speak. All of that came later. Much later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Story Does Not End With A Kiss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gehayi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gehayi/gifts).



If I went back to the beginning, back where everything started, there was Anne. Of course you want to know about the lamb and the dancing and everything else that came after that, but that’s putting the horse before the cart, so to speak. All of that came later. Much later.

So, if I’m going to tell you the story, I think it’s important to start with Anne. Maybe then you’ll understand why everything happened. Although, even now, I don’t know if what happened is really that easy to figure out. Maybe there was a mass hallucination. It’s certainly possible. But assuming that you're real, here and now, that's where we're going to start. With the beginning. With Anne.

 

 

Most of my memories from when I was a kid are a bit hazy. For example, I know that my father left us when I was about five, but I can’t remember him actually leaving. It’s all in sepia tones: one day he was there and the next day he wasn’t. Maybe there was a fight, maybe there wasn’t.

But meeting Anne stands out, as I assume it does for everyone.

“Today, you’re going to meet John’s daughter, Anne,” my mother said. Looking back, I can see the slightest moue of distaste at the word ‘Anne,’ but at the time, I didn’t even register it, consumed as I was with excitement.

“Do you think that she’ll like me?” I asked. I looked into the small mirror in our bathroom and tried to imagine what Anne looked like. John had said that she was nice and would like me, but I wasn’t too sure. What if she didn’t want a younger sister?

I smoothed down my nicest dress, the one dotted with small blue flowers, now more nervous than ever. My whole life I had dreamed of having a sister—one who would protect me and play games with me as well as tell me important secrets. But maybe Anne hadn’t wanted the same.

My mother finished putting my hair back. “I’m sure that she will as long as you’re polite and well-behaved,” she said. My mother examined her handiwork in the mirror and frowned slightly. She smoothed down a stray piece of hair that had escaped before turning me around to face her.

“Kate, this is important,” my mother said. “Very important. If this goes well, John’s going to ask me to marry him. So, you need to be on your best behavior with Anne. Her opinion is very important to John.” 

Whatever my mother saw in my face just made her sigh. “Just be friendly, ok?” she said.

But when we arrived at Maestro Gio for lunch, I stopped immediately inside the entrance, because there across from me was Anne, perfect Anne. I could tell that Anne was a few years older than me—she must have been in middle school. She also had about a foot in height on me and, even then, that willowy grace that made me think of those kids who starred in ads inside the subway stations.

Anne wore a simple blue dress. It looked casual but also completely appropriate for the restaurant’s sleek lines and fancy servers. Later, I would come to understand that such an outfit generally spoke of money, lots of money, old money, but at the moment, all I could think was that Anne was the kind of person who would fit in everywhere. Unlike me. There was no way that Anne would like anything about me.

“Kate,” John’s voice rang out in the entrance of the restaurant. “Vivian, you both look lovely as always.”

My mother thrust me out in front of her. I froze up for a second, wishing—inanely—that I could hide behind the red curtains next to the front door of the restaurant. My mother came to an abrupt stop behind me. “Katherine,” my mother hissed. “You move right this second.”

My mother half-dragged me to the hostess desk where John and Anne waited. She pulled my dress so hard, I expected it to tear.

“Kate, this is my daughter, Anne. Anne, this is Kate,” John said. “And of course, Anne, you remember Vivian.”

“Hi Vivian,” Anne said, looking up at my mother. She then looked back at me and gave me a wide smile. “Hi Kate, I’m really happy to finally meet you.”

I nodded back, dumbly, and Anne watched me for a second. “Do you like fish?” she asked. “They have an aquarium here, in the back.”

I nodded again and Anne reached out a hand, I tentatively reached out to hold it. “Awesome,” Anne said happily. “These are really cool fish.”

 

Sure enough, when we got to the back of the restaurant, there was an aquarium, filled with brightly colored fish. “Aha!” Anne said and pulled me over to one side to show me a black and yellow fish. “This one is my favorite.”

I examined the fish. It swam quickly throughout the aquarium, deftly navigating the other fish inside. “Does it have a name?” I asked eventually.

Anne shook her head. “I don’t think so. Do you want to give it one?”

I thought for a few seconds, but nothing came to mind. “I don’t know,” I said, hesitantly, watching Anne. “It kind of looks like a bee?”

“That’s perfect,” Anne said, smiling at me. I couldn’t help but smile back, feeling a rush of confidence. “Let’s call it Bee.”

 

Anne and I spent most of the meal over by the aquarium. John came to get us when we needed to order our food and we returned to the table once our food arrived, but Anne and I had a great time coming up with increasingly ridiculous names for the fish. My mother’s face looked pinched, but she didn’t reproach me for my behavior when we left the restaurant.

 

 

 

 

I wanted Anne to like me so badly—maybe all younger siblings want that. If so, I stepped effortlessly into that role.

Anne, for her part, loved me from the get go. I can only imagine what she saw that day—a shy nine-year old who had become so tongue-tied that she couldn’t talk. But maybe Anne had always dreamed of a fish-naming partner. Or maybe that was just Anne—able to understand who I was without words. Either way, Anne took to me as quickly as I took to her.

When my mother and I moved into John and Anne’s massive townhouse, Anne took me under her wing. She made sure that I didn’t feel lost in the new space by having my room moved next to hers on the second floor. Anne showed me the haunts around the area and took me on my first shopping trip. I still remember the two of us giggling over ice cream sundaes at the Neiman-Marcus café.

I wanted to be just like Anne—Anne who was effortlessly gorgeous and friendly, smart and independent. When I started at Anne’s school, everyone knew about my background within a week and I became an instant nine-year-old pariah, for no reason that I could understand other than the fact that my mother had remarried someone with a larger apartment.

When Anne found out that I ate lunch by myself on the playground, she took to walking to the elementary school every day for lunch and eating with me until other students decided that being related to Anne outweighed my previous impoverishment.

 

 

But if I loved Anne because she was amazing, my mother hated her for it. I’m not sure if my mother felt simply threatened by Anne or if there was something else, something deeper and darker. Either way, my mother tried to undermine Anne whenever she could.

My mother used to buy Anne clothing that didn’t fit right. I’m not sure if she did it so that Anne wouldn’t look good when she wore it or that she could claim Anne was being ungrateful if she didn’t wear them. Probably both. 

Instead, Anne taught herself how to use a sewing machine and began altering her clothes. Anne pulled out these stunning creations. shirts that had been too small were split apart and sewn back together to give them a breezy, fun look. Dresses that fit awkwardly were taken in and then embellished, making Anne’s clothing the talk of the town whenever we attended parties as a family.

 

 

John was immensely proud of Anne’s skills but it rankled my mother to no end. A frosty détente existed between them throughout Anne’s high school career.

 

 

“Have you thought about riding lessons?” my mother asked one day. I thought about riding on horses and shivered. Anne had taken me riding once and I had spent the entire time genuinely convinced that I was about to die. Anne, conversely, had spent the entire time trying to stop giggling and making fun of me.

“I don’t think that’s for me,” I said. “Not really into horses.”

My mother pursed her lips. “Anne is quite a good rider,” she said. “That’s something that a lot of the girls at  your school do.”

I made a face. Outside of Anne, I didn’t have a high regard for the girls at my school. I had friends, sure, but they were the kind of friends where we hung out for mutually beneficial social reasons rather than any actual true affection.

“Nah,” I said. “I think that I’m ok.”

My mother let it drop, but that wasn’t the only activity that she tried to get me to do. Any activity that Anne excelled in, my mother wanted me to do, and to do it better. When I got into high school, my mom wanted me to join the field hockey team and seemed perpetually disappointed that I barely managed to crack the JV team as opposed to Anne’s spot as a starter on the varsity squad.

 

 

During my sophomore year of high school, Anne was elected homecoming queen. My mother flew into a rage at me.

“You don’t even try,” she said, cornering me in my room. We both knew exactly what she referred to.

“I don’t have any control over who gets to be homecoming queen,” I said back. “You know that’s elected by all of the students and only seniors ever get elected.” I had, of course, also voted for Anne, but this didn’t seem like the time to say so.

“When Anne was your age, she was on the homecoming court. You’re not even in the conversation,” she said, hissing. “Do you want to be stupid and ugly for your entire life, stuck in Anne’s shadow?”

By now I was on the verge of tears, but I steadied my chin and gritted my teeth together. “Maybe I do,” I said. “That’s me: Kate the stupid and ugly.”

“Stupider than I could have ever thought,” my mother said. “Is this how I raised you? To be ungrateful? To be this pathetic? You have everything at your disposal and you refuse to even try.”

Tears were spilling out now, so I turned and faced the window, refusing to let my mother see me cry.

“Fine,” my mother said. “Stay pathetic for all I care.” I heard the door slam behind me. I sat down quickly on the bed and buried my face in my pillow.

After a few minutes, I heard my door slowly open and then quietly close. “I’m sorry,” Anne said from the door.

“Why?” I said, hiccupping slightly into the pillow. My mother hadn’t said anything that surprised me. But even if I had known that she thought it, it still hurt more than I imagined to hear her say it. “She’s the bitch here, not you.”

“Still,” Anne said. “It’s not fair.”

It wasn’t fair. I wished my mother were as proud of me as John was of Anne. Or even as proud of John was of me. But nothing was going to change, so I didn’t bother responding.

Eventually, Anne came over to the bed and sat down next to me. She didn’t say anything else. She just sat there until my tears slowed and finally stopped.

 

 

 

Things got a little bit better with my mother when Anne went off to college. Anne chose to go to our nearest Ivy League school, Columbia, right there in the city. I didn’t say anything, but I was secretly over the moon that she’d decided to stay nearby. I’d had nightmares about Anne moving out of the state and never seeing her again.

Plus, with Anne gone, my mother seemed to relax a little bit. I tentatively entertained thoughts of her and Anne actually getting along, although it seemed like a complete pipe dream.

 

Family holidays were still stilted, but they got better, and Anne always made time to see me when I visited her at the Columbia campus.

 

 

 

 Things stayed better until my college decision became pressing. My mother and I began fighting about which school I would go to. She wanted Harvard, I wanted Columbia.  

 

When Anne came out for Easter brunch during my senior year of high school, I was almost pathetically glad to see her and insisted that she come back home after our family brunch out. But when we went into her room and closed the door, I found myself tongue-tied.

“Kate, what’s going on?” Anne said, looking at me seriously.

“Mom really wants me to pick Harvard,” I said, mumbling my words.

“But you don’t,” Anne said slowly. I shook my head. Harvard sounded like version 2.0 of high school. Plus it was far away from Anne. I’d see her even less and the thought of being so far away from my best friend made me miserable.

“Where do you want to go?” Anne asked.

I gave Anne a look.

Anne burst into a huge smile. “Oh, you definitely should!” she said. “It’s so much fun. It’ll be the Mendez girls taking on the world.” She waggled her eyebrows at me.

I laughed, feeling lighter than I had in ages. “Mom is going to kill me,” I said.

“Let her try,” Anne said recklessly. “I’ll protect you.”

 

 

Sure enough, when it came time for me to decide, I announced at a family diner that I was going to Columbia. John was thrilled. My mother put on her best Stepford smiler face and looked happy, although I could tell that I could expect a verbal tear-down that would be less than pleasant. But Anne had a determined look on her face after dinner. 

"Don't worry about it," she told me. "Just focus on getting ready for the next exciting adventure that you'll have." 

I'm not sure what she and my mother ever talked about, but my mother and I never did have a conversation about schools. Whatever Anne said must have worked.

 

 

Going off to college was a magical experience. “Are you sure that you have everything?” my mother said. She and John had come to move me into my dorm room on campus. John had dutifully helped me unpack my suitcases while my mother had helped make my bed. For one surreal moment, I felt like I could have grown up in any family—that my mother and stepfather could just be average people helping average me move into my college room. And then John’s assistant came into the room with an outstretched phone.

“It’s Mr. Gheida,” Marshall said. John took the phone and stepped outside.

“I’m fine,” I said to my mother, trying to reassure her. “This will be really good. It’s a great school.”

My mother walked over to me and looked at me for a long minute. “I just want what’s best for you." 

"I know," I said. "And being here, this is what's best for me. It's what I want." 

My mother made a small noise and then went outside to join John.

 

 

 College was everything I could have dreamed of and then some more. I declared as a business major and alternately loved and hated my classes. I fell in with a group of girls from my dorm that I really liked. We all hung out and studied together as well as went to parties together on the weekends. 

Anne lived in an apartment with her roommates and it was perfectly within walking distance, so I became a regular at their place whenever I wanted to hang out with Anne. 

Just like in high school, Anne fit well within the school social hierarchy, friendly with everyone as always. It felt like everyone on campus knew who Anne was, right up near the top of the social ladder.

 

The only other people that rivaled Anne on the social scene were the Prince brothers. If Anne came from old money, the Prince brothers came from the newest. Michael Prince had made his fortune through infomercials—billions, or so I heard—before he’d died young and left everything to his two sons. The elder of the Prince brothers, Austin, was a senior during my freshman year.

Austin was reputed to be the more serious of the two brothers. We met once at a barbecue for business majors in the fall, although it was little more than a cursory hello as we both helped ourselves to hamburgers. I saw him occasionally in the business building, as I rushed to my classes. He usually was chatting with someone, intently focused on the discussion. His hair was always cut short but professionally, and he stood confidently, as if he was certain of his place in the world. I wasn’t the only girl that I knew to think that he was cute. But, other than a few longing glances in his direction, he was only on the periphery of my radar.

 

Cooper, one year younger, was the social one who had a reputation for partying hard. I saw him on campus a lot more—often drunk with his fraternity brothers, including, on one memorable occasion, naked as they streaked through the campus on a Friday night. Everyone on campus followed the Cooper's shenanigans, or at least knew of his latest one, which made his sudden drop-out from school as I started my sophomore year even more noticeable.

Rumors floated around campus that Cooper had been expelled for pranking the school dean, that Cooper had partied too hard and ended up in the hospital, that he’d become seriously ill and was receiving top-secret drugs, or even that he’d dropped out just because he’d been bored. Either way, I didn’t think much of it. After all, Cooper and I hadn’t even been in the same social spheres. I assumed that it was probably the same reason as countless other frat boys—partying hard and getting good grades didn’t generally go hand in hand.

Besides, I had enough going on in my own life. My mother had decided that I would be a participant at the bi-annual Society Debutante Ball. Anne had been asked to participate in it when she was a freshmen in college, coming from one of the oldest families in the city. For me, I’m certain that John had to pull some strings to get me invited, but when I received the gold embossed invitation during the summer in between my freshman and sophomore year, my mother told me in no uncertain terms that I would be participating.

 

“Mom, is this really necessary?” I asked for the umpteenth time. I pulled fruitlessly at the long white gloves making my arms itch.

My mother glared at me in the mirror as she finished putting the final touches on my chignon. I barely recognized my own face in the mirror. Done up with more make-up than I had seen before in my entire life, I looked like a farcical debutante—the ones that Anne and I normally mocked in the society pages.

“Katherine Regina Mendez, you will not embarrass me,” my mother hissed and tugged my hair once for good measure.

“Ow,” I said, protesting. “Mom, I’m going to embarrass myself up there—I’m not even thinking about you.”

My mother turned me around to face her. I had gotten used to looking at her without looking at her but I couldn’t avoid it like this. I could see that the lines around her eyes had gotten more pronounced and her stare was intent, focused in a way that made me uneasy.

“You listen to me,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. I suppressed a shiver. “This is your chance to finally outshine Anne. If you mess this up in any way, I promise you that the consequences will be a thousand times worse than having to attend a debutante ball. Do you understand me?”

Her words had a ring of truth in them and I felt a cold line of fear drop straight into my stomach.

“Katherine, do you understand me?” My mother asked again, her tone brooking no dissent. I nodded, unable to find any words to say anything.

 

 

Before I knew it, I was being herded into the line with the other debutantes who would be presented at the ball. We’d all met each other at the various mother and father luncheons and pre-ball festivities and I knew a few of them from high school, but everyone else looked excited and happy to be there. I felt like I could barely put up a smile in return as everyone greeted each other.

My escort, some important ambassador’s son, was already in place, but he was flirting with the girl in front of me. Without anything to distract me, my stomach sank even further as I thought about how everyone would stare at me as I entered. I just wanted to be back at school, safe in my dorm room.

Eventually our cue music started up and Mrs. Guildebrand pushed everyone into their assigned spaces. She nodded at the first couple, who began to walk forward, stepping out from the hallway and disappearing from my view as they headed down the staircase. Soon after, on Mrs. Guildebrand’s cue, the second couple started. Then the third, and so on, until all of a sudden, it was my turn.

I pasted on my best smile and started walking in step with my escort. When we entered the main ballroom, a wall of bright light met me but I managed to keep walking forward, one careful step at a time. By the time that we arrived at the middle of the staircase, my eyes had adjusted and I could make out the hundreds of people in the room watching us. I saw my mother and John standing up near the front, my mother’s eyes glittering as she watched me. I slowed down for a second, but my escort carefully applied pressure, half pulling me until my body caught up.

When we arrived at the bottom of the staircase, my escort gracefully extracted his arm from mine and began walking where the rest of the escorts had assembled. I must have looked petrified because he gave me a reassuring smile and inclined his head in the direction that I needed to head to. I nodded once at him and then turned in order to make my way towards the other debutantes on the far side of the ballroom stage.

A little over halfway across the stage, I went to take a step but my shoe caught along the hem of my dress. I stood precariously for a moment, desperately trying to untangle myself. In almost perfect slow motion, I tipped over, flailing, and then hit the ground hard.

Silence. Utter silence.

I tried to push myself up, but the heel of my shoe only seemed to wedge itself farther into my dress. I was mortified, so mortified, and the silence just kept on going.

I felt tears beginning to prick at my eyes, when someone placed a hand gently on my arm. I looked up to find Anne.

“It’s ok,” Anne whispered. She quickly reached back and untangled the mess that I’d created and then carefully pulled me up. I wasn’t sure what to do, but Anne extended out her arm as if she was my escort and then winked at me. I knew, without Anne having to say it out loud, that she was telling me that she was there for me. That it was us against the world.

And as the whispers started up as we walked over to the rest of the girls (half of them still holding shocked facial expressions), I knew with a certainty that she was right. Yeah, I was embarrassed that all of New York society had seen me fall, but Anne was on my side, so it could be worse.

After Anne left me with the other girls, I snuck a look over to my mother. She wasn’t looking at me at all, and I breathed a sigh of relief. At least until I followed her gaze and saw her staring at Anne, naked loathing on my mother’s face. In a flash, my mother turned and looked back at me. There was something utterly alien about my mother’s face—colder than I had ever seen it before.

 

 

Apparently my mishap hadn’t rendered me ineligible as a young lady of New York society, because I found myself with plenty of dance partners that night. More than a few openly expressed admiration for Anne, but I didn’t mind it. After all, there was a chance that I would have still been on that dance floor if Anne hadn’t made the first move to help me up.

So despite my fears and my fall, the night actually passed enjoyably, in a haze of white dresses, smiling dance partners and never empty flutes of champagne. I saw Anne a few times through the crowd, although she looked harried and we only talked once.

“Are you having a good time?” Anne asked when she caught me getting water. I couldn’t have told you what time it was, but for once, it didn’t matter.

“Yes,” I said. “Why aren’t you dancing?”

Anne shrugged and gave a half-smile. “Vivian needed someone to run an errand for her. She and Dad looked like they were actually having fun, so I volunteered.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes which Anne reciprocated. “Well, don’t let it take too long,” I said. “Or you’ll miss the party!”

Anne gave me a quick hug and then disappeared into the crowd again before I found myself whirled away back to the dance floor.

 

 

When the ball started winding down, I looked around for Anne. Normally after one of these events, we would catch a cab and go to one of the city’s 24 hour diners for a bite, but I didn’t see her anywhere in the dwindling crowd. I went to my table to get my purse and cellphone.

“Kate,” my mother said, suddenly appearing at my side. I tensed up in surprise before forcing myself to relax.

“Look Mom,” I said. “I’m really sorry about the fall.” My mother raised an eyebrow, evaluating me.

“It doesn’t matter,” my mother said finally. She may have well as said that we were in China or that the sky was bright green. We both knew that it did matter, for her, and that she wouldn’t forget that I had been imperfect.

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry,” I said. “Do you know where Anne is? I thought that she would be here, but I haven’t seen her in a while.”

My mother gave a minute shrug. “I haven’t seen her all night,” she said.

“She said that she was running an errand for you,” I said. My mother’s lips pressed into a straight line.

“I just needed some aspirin, but Anne came back from that ages ago and I haven’t seen her since. Maybe she decided to go hang out with some of her friends,” my mother said, stressing the word friends.

“She would have told me if she was leaving,” I said.

My mother didn’t bat an eye. “Maybe she’s with someone right now,” she said. “And didn’t have time to text before she left.”

If Anne had met some handsome stranger, she would have texted me that she was leaving. Clearly my mother had no desire to be helpful. I didn’t want to stand there arguing with her, so I nodded and then grabbed my purse. I waved to one of the other debutantes who was collecting her things. “I’ve got to go—I told Britt that I would help her out,” I said and then bolted over to Britt.

I felt my mother’s eyes on my back until Britt and I left the ballroom.

 

 

I texted Anne once I made it downstairs to the lobby of the hotel. When I didn’t get a response after a few minutes, I grabbed a cab and hesitated while the cab driver looked at me impatiently. Eventually I gave him the address of Anne’s dorm, figuring that I would start there first.  But when I showed up, Anne’s three roommates told me that they hadn’t seen or heard from Anne since before the ball.

I went home next, which seemed even more discouraging. When I got out of the elevator, the entire townhouse stood in darkness, giving my home an alien feel.

“Anne?” I called out as I turned on a light.

My heart sank as no response or sound appeared to be forthcoming. For the sake of completeness, I went over to Anne’s door and tried the handle. It was locked. I jiggled it harder. Definitely locked. Anne was home!

“Anne?” I said louder. “Anne, it’s me.”

There was no response, but I knew with certainty that Anne was in her room. Why wasn’t she talking to me? Anne had never been so angry that she’d refused to talk to me.

“Anne, what’s going on?” I asked. What if something was wrong, really wrong? Maybe Anne had fallen and gotten a concussion. Again, there was no answer, but eventually I could hear sounds of someone moving and I breathed a huge sigh of relief at just knowing that she was there and alive.

I knocked louder, the sound echoing down the hallway, and kept knocking until Anne spoke suddenly. “Shhh,” Anne said, hissing from the other side of the door. She opened the door a crack—I couldn’t see anything in her room. Just a wall of darkness.

“Anne, what’s going on?” I said, quieter now that I knew she was just a foot away from me.

There was a long pause. “Let me in,” I said eventually after it became clear that Anne wasn’t going to say anything.

“No,” Anne said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Please,” I said. “If you don’t let me in, I’ll go call Mom and John.” It was an empty threat and we both knew it, but Anne let out a shaky sigh and the door opened wide enough for me to slip in.

Once I entered the room, I moved to turn on the light, but Anne stopped me. “Don’t turn on the light,” she said forcefully, her hand catching my wrist. I ignored her and turned on the light with my other hand. Anne quickly turned her head away but it was too late.

“Oh my god,” I said softly. Even my brief glance had shown that Anne, beautiful Anne, was beautiful no longer. Gentle, downy, white fur covered most of Anne’s face and her nose had shrunk in size. It now appeared to be a darkish color, just like her lips.

In contrast, her ears had grown, extending out into a point, light pink on the inside and covered on the outside with the same soft looking fur as her face. Something about the full image resonated with the one small part of my brain that was not numb with utter disbelief. After a minute it came to me: a lamb. Anne looked like a lamb.

Anne gave a half-sob while I stood there in shock. “I don’t know what’s happening,” Anne said. She turned slightly and I could see the faint tear tracks on her face and reddened eyes. Acting on instinct, I closed the distance between the two of us and pulled her into a hug. She came easily.

“It’s ok,” I said as she started crying again. “It’s going to be ok,” I said, even as my mind drew a blank.

I had never seen Anne so upset—she was the dependable one, the clever one, the one who always took everything in stride. And now here I was, trying to provide comfort to her. I nudged Anne towards the bed and she went easily, folding in on herself once she sat down.

“What happened?” I finally asked. “Something had to do this—people don’t just magically grow fur and new ears.”

“I don’t know,” Anne said. Then, she stopped short. There was a long pause while I waited for Anne to finish the thought.

“But there’s something?” I prompted.

Anne bit her lip. It appeared odd on her face and I quickly looked down at my hands in order to avoid showing my reaction to Anne.

“What did you do immediately before….this happened?” I asked.

“Vivian asked me to run an errand for her—she asked that I pick up something for her from a pharmacy. I ended up needing to go back three times because the first two times, there was something wrong with the medication. After I left the pharmacy the third time, I felt sick about halfway to the hotel,” Anne said. “I thought I was going to be ill, so I found a bathroom. That’s when I saw…this.”

I mulled this over for a few minutes. “And nothing happened after the pharmacy?”

Anne thought for a second. “Nothing that I can think of.”

I’m not sure what exactly I expected—it wasn’t like people normally started looking like barnyard animals. Whatever or whoever had done this was weird and outside the realm of anything I thought possible. I snuck another look at Anne, but the fur hadn’t gone anywhere. If anything, it seemed more definite now.

I tried to start mentally compiling a list of what could cause this, but couldn’t come up with anything. The only possible answer, magic, seemed too farcical to say out loud.

“What do you think?” I said finally.

Anne sighed angrily. “The same thing that I’ve been thinking for the past few hours—that none of this can be real. That I’m in the worst nightmare that I’ve ever had. That there is no logical reason that this could've happened.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“Ok,” I said. “I’m just thinking out loud here, but what if it wasn’t something logical. What if it was something like magic?”

We were both quiet for a long time.

“It’s got to be,” Anne said slowly. “Occam’s razor.”

We brainstormed for a while about magic, but it felt so weird to even say it out loud. This was something that only existed in books or movies. And yet, we both had to admit that there was absolutely nothing else that could explain what had happened.

“Supposing that it is magic,” Anne said. “And that it was done on purpose, I can’t figure out why it would happen when it did. It wasn’t like anything unusual happened at the pharmacy.”

An idea started coming to me, slowly and half-baked, but there all the same. “But you went back to it three times. Why would Mom even ask you to run an errand for her during the debutante ball? Although,” I said, thinking back to the evening’s earlier events. “She didn’t want you there at all. And she told me that if I messed anything up, she would do something much worse than making me go to a debutante ball.”

“You’re not saying that Vivian did this,” Anne said. But she didn’t sound all that certain in her statement.

“Wouldn’t the hotel be able to send someone to pick it up?” I asked. “ Or why not wait until after the ball? You didn’t return after the last trip and she didn’t say that she needed anything when I talked to her at the end of the ball.”

I looked over at Anne and she looked over at me. I saw the moment that we both came to the same realization.

“I need to go,” Anne said. “Right now, before Vivian and Dad get home.”

I was already jumping up. “I’m coming with you,” I said.

Anne gave me a stern look. “Absolutely not. I have no idea where I’m even going to go—you are not coming with me. You can’t miss school.”

I ignored Anne’s words and headed straight to my room, throwing a random assortment of clothing into my nearest duffel bag. I grabbed my laptop and phone charger and a couple other things into the bag and then headed back to Anne’s room. She had changed into a large hooded sweatshirt and was wearing a scarf that obscured most of her face. Her own packed duffel bag lay on the ground next to her.

“Definitely not,” Anne said.

“I don’t care what you say,” I said. “I’m coming whether you like it or not. Besides, how do you think you’re going to do anything looking like you do? You need to find a way to get this removed and I can help.”

Anne stood there, just looking at me. “Please?” I said. “I’m going to follow you whether you want me to or not.” After a minute of hesitation, she sighed and I knew that her resolve had crumbled. 

“Alright,” Anne said. “You can come with me.”

 

 

We ended up at one of those sleazy motels that had barely pinged my radar before. It wasn’t either of our first choices, but we couldn’t get a hotel room without using a credit card and a hostel, with its communal rooms, was too risky. Which left the creepy motel in Hells Kitchen.

Neither of us slept much the first night. I think that we both still thought that there was some easy solution—something that would just as magically turn Anne back into herself. If there was, the internet wasn’t forthcoming about it.

The next morning, I went to check out the pharmacy but there was nothing at the address that Anne had given me except an old boarded-up shop. I peeked in, but it looked like it hadn’t seen any human occupants in several years, a thick layer of dust coating the floor.

I walked around the block a few times in order to double check, but there were no pharmacies or drug stores in the area. To be extra thorough, I went into the clothing store across the street and asked the sales attendant if there had been a pharmacy at the boarded-up shop’s location.

He gave me an odd look. “As long as I’ve been working here, there hasn’t been anything there,” he said. “I think that the owner was trying to sell it for a while, but they obviously didn’t have much luck.”

When I went back to our room and relayed the news to Anne, she frowned but didn’t look surprised.

“So it was the pharmacy,” she said.

“I guess so,” I said. Anne remembered the pharmacist who had helped her: a tall, older woman with dark red hair. Unfortunately, trying to find one single person in all of New York was so laughable that Anne and I had already given up on that thought.

Essentially we’d come to a dead-end.

Without warning, Anne began making these half-hiccupping sobs. I looked over in alarm to find that Anne was crying, her whole body wracking itself with full sobs.

I froze, unsure of what to do. I’d seen Anne cry before, but never like this. I cautiously got closer to her. “Are you ok?” I said and then winced retroactively at my stupid question.

“No,” Anne finally got out. “I’m not ok. I look like a sheep! I will never be to finish school like this or lead any semblance of a normal life. I am not ok!” And before I could respond, Anne stood up and went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

She wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t sure what I could say to comfort her. I had to believe that there was a way to turn Anne back even if I didn’t have the faintest idea of what it was.

 

I began spending a lot of time in the nearest library branch, going through obscure microfilm archives of old newspapers and books for any mentions of similar occurrences. But we had another, more pressing dilemma.

It became clear that our cash would only get us so far. When Anne and I had left home, we’d withdrawn the daily maximum amount from the ATMs and taken what cash we had on hand, but it was nowhere near enough to last us for any extended stay in the city. We couldn’t risk using an ATM since our parents could track the usage and my mother could have already cancelled the cards.

Credit cards were out for similar reasons. Both of us had turned off our phones as well after the first day—I felt paranoid, but after my mother’s orchestration of Anne’s transformation, I felt that it was better to be safe than sorry.

With dwindling resources, for the first time in my life I felt unmoored and lost in the city that I had known for my entire life. We needed to start thinking of solutions and thinking of them fast.

“You’re going to need to get a job,” Anne said one morning.

I lifted my head up from my pillow. “What?”

“I’ve been looking for a data analyzation job or data entry job that I can do online,” Anne said. “Or really, anything that I can do from home. It’s difficult because it’ll have to all be under the table. But we can’t afford to stay here past the end of the week.”

I pushed myself up and looked over at Anne. Anne’s face was covered with a scarf, as it now always was after her breakdown, making it impossible to read her face. Her tone was carefully blank, giving me no clues. I wanted to reach out—reassure myself that it was really Anne in the bed next to mine—but when I started to lean over, Anne shrank back, so I leaned back onto my bed and lay back down on the pillow.

I didn’t say anything in response. I didn’t really need to. We couldn’t return to the house. We couldn’t return to school. We couldn’t stay at the motel without more money. It didn’t leave many options.

 

 

The job search turned out to be tougher than I expected. Apparently without a college degree, ability to use my social security number or any credible references, my pickings were pretty slim. I ended up turning to Craigslist and the other informal job posting boards for the city.

I’m not sure what I expected to find: I didn’t have a whole lot of job-relevant skills. Childcare was out because it required references and prior experience. I didn’t know how to paint anything or fix a broken sink. I managed to get a job canvassing for a few days, but when that finished up, there wasn’t much else on the horizon.

Honestly, it seemed pretty hopeless until I found the listing in the part time section. It seemed so out of left field, that at first, I took it for a prank.

               **Night Caretaker for Sick Brother (23M)**

_Looking for a night caretaker for my brother. My brother has been getting progressively sicker over the past few months. Something appears to be making it worse at night, but we cannot figure out what it is. Any medical or surveillance equipment mysteriously stops working and any caretaker hired finds themselves in a completely different part of the city in the morning with no recollection of how they got there. I will pay you $500 a night for each night that you stay with my brother._

It was weird, right? But it also didn’t require references and promised a lot of money. Presumably, it also promised a serial killer who would lock me into a dungeon.

Eventually, I clicked the link to reply to the poster.

_I’m interested in helping you out, but how do I know that you’re not a serial killer or someone just looking to lure people into some kind of trap?_

I got a reply back almost immediately.

_I’ll meet you first in a public place and give you all of my identification documents. You can give them to someone you trust to hold onto until you return. If there are other security measures that you would like me to take, I’m happy to listen._

That seemed reasonable. I mean, he or she could still kill me. But at least, I’d conceivably have some precautionary measures. I made a mental note to bring a taser with me.

 _Sure_ , I responded. _When and where?_

 

When turned out to be as soon as humanely possibly and the where was at a Starbucks in Mid-City. The poster told me to look for a tall guy wearing an orange sweater.

Sure enough, when I arrived, I saw someone sitting near the window, his back to me. When I walked around, I stopped and stood still in surprise. It was Cooper Prince.  I had last seen Cooper Prince stumbling across campus on a Wednesday afternoon, three sheets to the wind.

The Cooper in front of me barely looked like that guy. He seemed closed in on himself, the vibrancy and energy that had made him a campus icon was completely gone. Even his appearance had changed—his hair no longer carefully tousled but instead cut practical and short.

Cooper looked up and saw me, surprise written on my face, and I frantically pulled it together. The last thing that I wanted was for Cooper to think that I knew him from somewhere.

“Are you from the Craigslist ad?” I asked. When Cooper nodded, I slid into the seat opposite Cooper.

“I’m Kate,” I said and held out my hand. Cooper looked at me for a hard minute like he was trying to place me from somewhere.

“Do I know you?” he asked finally.

I shrugged and tried to look nonchalant. “I don’t think so?”

Cooper let it drop and pushed over his driver’s license, a passport and a birth certificate, all of which appeared to be legitimate. I took a deep breath and let the sounds of the coffee machines going and people talking wash over me.

“So, all I need to do is watch your brother,” I said. I realized now that the brother must be Austin.

“Yes,” Cooper said. “And if you can stay awake and tell me why he’s getting worse at night, I’ll give you five thousand dollars.”

I thought quickly. Five thousand dollars was a lot of money. It sounded intriguing but how was I going to know what was causing Austin’s medical condition? I sighed. “Either way, the base amount is five hundred dollars for each night that I watch him?” I asked. Cooper nodded. “Ok,” I said. “I’ll do it, but with one condition.”

Cooper didn’t even blink. “What’s the condition?”

“That you provide some place for my sister and me to stay while I do this.”

Cooper regarded me calmly. “That’s not a problem. However, I do have to tell you that there’s a good chance that this will end badly for you,” Cooper said. “I wasn’t exaggerating in the ad. There’s a very high chance that like the other people to try this, you’ll end up in a bad part of town, no memory of how you got there, terrified beyond reason by something that you can’t explain.”

Every day that Anne and I spent in the motel, we wasted a bit more of our limited financial resources. I had no real chance of figuring out Austin’s problem or even Anne’s at this point, but for Anne’s sake, I needed to make this work. If I could buy us a few days and get paid, Anne and I would be set.

I examined the identification documents once more. “Okay,” I said and put the identification documents in the purse. “I’ll do it.”

 

I told Anne the good news when I got back to the motel. “I found us a place to stay,” I said. “Someone is willing to give us a free room if I agree to watch over his sick brother, which they’re going to pay me for.”

Anne turned towards me. “That sounds too easy.” I shrugged. With her face covered, I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. I hated it. “How do we know this guy won’t kill us?”

“I mean, we don’t have a guarantee,” I said. “But I actually know this guy. You know this guy.”

“What?” Anne said. “Who?”

“It’s Cooper Prince,” I said. “I think he dropped out of school to take care of his sick brother.” That sounded shockingly responsible for a guy who had once gone on a two week bender during finals.

Anne was quiet for a long time. “And we can stay there while you’re watching his brother? Won’t he notice that your sister never shows his face and think that’s kind of weird?”

I sighed. “Why don’t we cross that bridge when we get to it? I’m sure I can come up with some reasonably likely explanation.”

Reluctantly, Anne agreed.

 

 

Cooper wanted me to start as soon as possible, so Anne and I packed up our meager possessions and headed over to Cooper and Austin’s massive townhouse.

I fed Cooper a story about facial scarring that Anne and I had practiced when he cast an inquisitive glance towards Anne when he let us in. Cooper nodded once and then appeared to forget all about it as he led us to the room that we would be staying in.

It was a large room and furnished with two beds as well as a large cabinet. It connected to a bathroom. I suddenly, viciously, felt homesick. “You had asked for one room,” Cooper said. “But if you would prefer two separate rooms, it’s no problem at all.”

I looked over at Anne. I felt further away from her than I had since I was a nine-year-old, frozen in place and staring at her. “One room is fine,” I said quickly.

“Great,” Cooper said. He paused and looked at me. When I didn’t say anything, he gave a half smile. “Since it’s getting late, would you mind if I showed you to my brother’s room?”

Right, of course, the whole reason we were here in the first place. I dropped my duffel on the floor. “Not a problem,” I said. “Lead the way.”

Cooper led me down a hall way and then up the stairs. He stopped right before we got to the second room on the right. “Just…” he said, trailing off.

I waited for him to finish but when nothing seemed to be forthcoming, I gestured at him to continue. “Just understand that he’s in bad shape,” Cooper said. “I want to warn you.”

I felt a shiver run down my spine and all of a sudden, my mind supplied me with images of every kind of hospital horror that I could think of. How bad must it be if Cooper felt the need to give me a heads up. I really did not want to go in that room. But if I left, where would Anne and I go? And with what money? So I took a deep breath and nodded.

“I understand,” I said. When Cooper opened up the door, I forced myself to look inside and immediately flinched. From what I remembered of Austin, he’d been tall and broad-shouldered, with a build that spoke of experience playing sports. Now he looked too thin, his skin pulled tightly, with shallow rises of his chest as he breathed in and out. There were dark purple circles under his eyes and his skin was pale with faint yellowing beginning to creep in.

I must have made some small noise because Cooper turned to look at me. “There’s no way that he’s doing anything at night,” I said. Because he’s barely alive, I refrained from saying out loud.

“I still need someone to watch him,” Cooper said. His voice had become firmer now—the softness and fear from earlier had disappeared. “And there’s something going on. I need to know what happens to him. Because every morning he’s worse, so much worse, and if I don’t figure it out, he’s…” going to die, I mentally finished.

“Alright, ok,” I said, although it was more to myself than to Cooper.

Cooper watched me as I walked into the room. There was some terrible scent in the room that made me want to gag—almost like anise-scented rotting fruit—but I kept repeating to myself that in the morning, I would be five hundred dollars wealthier. I just had to make sure to not end up wandering the wilds of New York City in the middle of the night.

“Would you like anything?” Cooper asked solicitously.

“Some water would be great,” I said. Cooper disappeared and then returned after a few minutes with a large glass of water which I accepted gratefully. He stood there on the threshold of the room for a few seconds hesitating.

“Be careful,” Cooper said finally and then left the room, closing the door behind him.

 

 

For the next few hours, I read through my organic chemistry textbook. I knew that the likelihood of me going back to school in the near future was slim to none, but some sort of stubbornness made me keep plodding through the book. Every time that I looked over at Austin, he appeared to be exactly the same.

Around eleven thirty, I found myself starting to nod off and resorted to pinching myself to stay awake. I was beginning to think that there was no way that I would be able to stay up for the entire night when a loud chime went through the house. I checked my cellphone: it was midnight.

Suddenly, without any warning, Austin sat up and pushed himself off the bed, scaring me half to death. By the time that I had gathered myself, Austin had already pulled on a white button-down shirt, wrinkle free, black dress pants and a matching black suit jacket from somewhere in his closet. He was in the process of tying a bowtie around his neck.

“Austin,” I said. Austin didn’t even look over in my direction. “Austin,” I said, louder. There was nothing and then Austin slipped on a pair of shoes and began walking towards the door. “Austin!”

I reached out to grab Austin’s wrist and for a second, my hand closed around warm skin, but then Austin’s other hand came up and wrenched mine off—surprisingly strong for someone who looked like they were one hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet.

Austin kept moving, fast, and I took off after him, running through the house, calling his name. I tried calling for Cooper, even for Anne, but there was no response except for the constant chime of the clock calling the hour.

I tried to stop Austin once more as he got into the elevator to go down to the garage, blocking his path, but he just pushed me aside as if I was little more than a pile of papers and when I fell, I knew with certainty that I would feel the aches of it the following day. I scrambled up and after Austin, getting into the elevator with him.

“Where are we going?” I asked. Austin didn’t respond. I tried waving my hand in front of his face. He didn’t so much as blink.

I was wary of trying to stop him again, so I just followed him out of the elevator into the garage. Austin walked past the rows of cars until he got to a black convertible with the top down. Without pausing, he got into the front seat and started up the engine.

I panicked. It was clear that no one was going to show up and stop Austin and I was in no position to do so. So I did the only thing that I could think of: I jumped into the back of the car.

I had no idea if Austin knew I was there and ignoring me or if he was so out of it that I didn't even register on his radar. Either way, once he pulled out of the spot, he sped through the parking lot, never once glancing back at me.

I didn't see anyone else in the parking lot—I didn't even hear the sounds of any other cars moving and when we got to the front of the garage, the door went up automatically, allowing Austin to keep gunning it through the entrance.

If the garage had been quiet, the streets were even weirder. I saw no cars on the road or people wandering about. This was New York City. It hadn't seen a quiet moment since the city's inception and yet, everything around us was silent. No cars honked at us as Austin sped through red light after red light. No cab drivers screamed at us for changing lanes without signaling. No drunk tourists meandered out onto the street into our path.

It wasn't just creepy. It was wrong and every single fiber of my being knew it. I shouldn't have been in the car. I should have left well-enough alone and let Austin drive to whatever horrible, crazy thing he was off to by himself. But Austin sped upwards of 100 miles per hour through the streets of the city, blurring the store fronts and making it impossible for me to even attempt to get out.

With an odd sense of detachment, I reached up for the seat belt. It took several attempts to get my hands to cooperate, but eventually I buckled myself in. After some indeterminate amount of time had passed, I recognized that we were approaching Central Park. I realized in one horrifying moment that Austin meant to drive through the park as the car jumped the curb and went straight onto the grass.

“Austin!” I yelled. “You have to stop! There are trees here and—a” oh shit, a lake. There was a lake in the middle of Central Park. There was no way that we would miss it.

But Austin kept driving forward and miraculously we missed hitting any of the trees head-on, instead just bumping against the sides and bringing down small flurries of chestnuts into the car. Had there always been chestnuts in Central Park?

Suddenly, Austin slammed on the brakes jolting me forward, stopping in front of a large green hill. I thought that I knew Central Park fairly well, and yet I had no idea where we were. I thought that we were maybe near the zoo, but I wasn't sure.

I opened my mouth to speak, but for the first time all night, Austin spoke. “Open, open, green hill, and let the young prince in with his carriage,” he said, the words jilted and formal.

Before everything that had happened with Anne, I would have been oddly bemused by Austin's strange statement. But now, I knew with bone-deep certainty that there was something else at play. Something, like Anne's curse, where the rules were different and the consequences meant that every single one of Austin's previous monitors had ended up wandering the streets with their recent memory wiped, completely terrified of something that had happened in the dead of the night.

“And his friend,” I said loudly. “Let his friend in too.”

The hill shimmered and I saw a path leading below the hill that I was certain hadn’t existed a few seconds ago. Austin pressed on the gas, slamming me into the back of the car and pulled forward.

The moss-covered path led into a dark tunnel, pitch black and smelling faintly of lavender, until we suddenly emerged into a lit area, causing me to squint and look away from it.

Austin stopped the car and quickly began walking, leaving the keys dangling in the ignition. I unbuckled my seatbelt and began walking as well, blinking furiously and trying to get rid of the black spots covering my vision. When I finally was able to see, I realized that we were walking towards a castle—a huge stone castle with turrets and a moat and ivy climbing the walls surrounding it—along with dozens of other people.

However attractive Austin had been when I had seen him last in school, it was nothing compared to the rest of the people around us. These people looked like sports gods and prom princesses, movie stars and supermodels. Hair styles perfectly in place, perfectly tailored suits or dresses, and bodies to kill for. I was so out of my league that it was laughable.

One woman walked past me, her shimmering black dress just barely clinging to her curves, and she literally took my breath away. I stopped and gaped at her. When my legs finally got with the picture, I started walking after her, desperately wanting to catch every last glimpse of her that I could.

I could have kept walking forever except that in my haste to follow this women, I hadn't been walking where I was going and I ran straight into a column. Hard.

The pain came in a wave, snapping the woman's hold over me. All of a sudden, I realized that I had no idea where I was—I had somehow managed to get from outside the castle into the castle. But I couldn't see Austin anywhere in the crowd.

This time when I tried to look around me, I could identify the strange pulling from the people around me, an urge not dissimilar to an itch, to turn and stare at some beautiful man or woman as they walked past. And yet, when I saw their face, something about it repulsed me, the features too perfect to the point of being alien.

“Austin,” I told myself firmly. I needed to find Austin. It helped to repeat his name as I walked through the crowd as every so often, a pull would come along that was so strong, I would momentarily forget myself, but as long as I kept saying Austin's name and reminding myself why I was there, I was able to snap back to myself.

I got more than a few odd looks of disgust from the people around me, so I stuck to the shadows and walls, trying to be as discrete as possible. When it became clear that Austin was not in whatever room that I was in, I decided to follow the crowd. Hopefully, Austin had headed in that same direction.

Even with my sense of purpose, I couldn't help but marvel at the castle around me. Fairy lights and mini-lanterns lit the way, giving the castle a festive feel, and showed that the rooms were decorated heavily with a mix of thick tapestries and impressionist-type paintings that seemed to move subtly when I looked closer at them.

Eventually the smaller rooms that I passed through gave way to a large banquet hall. Small tables were set up along the side, adorned with decoration and lavish food that exceeded any restaurant I had ever been to. I saw juicy chickens with plum gravy, roasted swans stuffed with mushrooms and oysters, whole cooked pigs with delicate garnishes of mashed potatoes, poached salmon in a saffron sauce with peaches. My stomach rumbled faintly, but I forced myself to keep moving.

Past the food tables, the center of the hall had been cleared to make space for a bandstand and dance floor and that's where I finally saw Austin.

He stood near the front, swaying slightly, next to a tall, imposing woman who stood with her back to me. She turned slightly so that I could see her face and I felt my knees buckle slightly. If the people that I had seen before had been beautiful, this woman blew every single one of them out of the water. She was perfect, her dark skin flawless, with a bright yellow dress that was molded to her body. The woman's eyes seemed to promise untold delights, exciting adventures and the solution to any problem that I had ever had.

There was only room for her in my head and I wanted to go over to her immediately. Reach up and press my lips against hers, let her have any part of me that she wanted in any way that she desired.

I began walking towards her, desperate to get to her, but there were too many people in my way blocking my path. I tripped in my haste and fell onto the floor. The feel of cool marble against my skin surprised me enough that I was able to grab onto some semblance of myself. I sat there for a minute, taking deep breaths, and trying to tamp down on the surge of lust that demanded I immediately approach that woman.

“Austin,” I reminded myself. “Focus on Austin.”

When I could take a deep breath without wanting to start crawling over to the woman, I slowly pushed myself up and backtracked to the edge of the hall.

The people all around me began to quiet down and I had a moment of fear that I had been discovered before I saw the woman near Austin walking over the bandstand where a group of musicians had taken their seats. The woman surveyed the crowd and raised her arms.

“Welcome,” she said loudly. “Dance and be merry.” The crowd erupted into a cheer and on cue the band started to play a jazzy song that made me think of flappers doing the Charleston. Everyone instantly started dancing, including our gorgeous hostess, who pulled Austin into a dance.

Even if I had been able to break the hostess’ earlier spell on me, I couldn't look away from her and Austin dancing. Even as Austin was, thinner than anyone should be, the two of them were beautiful together. Austin looked smooth and confident, never breaking a beat as he and the hostess danced around the room.

 

They and the rest of the guests must have danced for hours. The music kept playing and Austin and the hostess kept dancing, moves matched perfectly, until Austin took a step and stumbled. The hostess caught Austin gracefully and laughed as she passed him off to an androgynous attendant that had appeared out of nowhere. The attendant led Austin to a chair off to the side and then disappeared.

I rushed over to couch, crouching next to Austin. He blinked blearily at the ceiling before his eyes drifted over to me.

“Austin?” I said. Austin focused on me—the first time all night that he'd even acknowledged my existence.

“Austin?” I said again. Austin's eyes widened in surprise and he struggled to try and sit up. I suddenly remembered how he had looked when I had seen him in the business building, tan and slightly freckled. Now he looked pale enough to match a sheet.

“You need to leave,” Austin said. “Now.” He jerked his head back at something and then, with surprising strength, pushed me back, hard. I was crouched on my toes and not expecting it, so the force of Austin’s push knocked me back and sent me sprawling.

The attendant from the earlier reappeared with a large glass of a blue-ish liquid which he or she tipped into Austin's mouth. Austin straightened up after finishing it and the attendant helped Austin up and immediately led Austin back to the dance floor. Austin gave a brief jerk of his head back, meeting my eyes before turning back. The attendant started to turn around to see what Austin was looking at and I ducked behind a nearby pillar. I had no concrete knowledge what would happen if the attendant or the hostess knew I was there, but my gut feeling said that it wouldn't be good.

 

I stayed hidden for the rest of the night, watching as Austin and the hostess got closer and closer as they danced, until there was barely enough space to slide a piece of paper between them.

"When will she tire of that human?" I heard someone say as the night began to make its way towards dawn, the creeping fingers of light beginning to be visible through the windows of the hall.

Being careful not to lose sight of Austin and the hostess, I positioned myself a little closer to the origin of the voice, a tall thin man with silver hair that sparkled in the light.

His partner, another tall man who made me think of a rugby player, made a bored sound. "I imagine the Queen will tire of him when she always does—I wonder how long until this one turns into another husk. It's so boring."

They moved on in their conversation to discuss other dalliances of the Queen, but I didn't register anything further. I had the why, but no idea of the how.

Suddenly, a loud chime tolled through the castle, freezing everyone as it pealed out the hour. With one mind, the music, dancers and atmosphere stopped. After the clock stopped chiming, everything became chaos as the party participants began streaming out of the castle.

Austin was also on the move again, heading out of the castle with the same blank determination as earlier, and I had to move quickly in order to catch up with him.

When we got outside, the car was still in the same place as where Austin had left it, so I ran over and jumped into the back seat. Austin showed no further acknowledgement of my presence and I didn't intend to be left behind, wherever this place was.

 

Just like our first ride through the Manhattan, the streets were empty even though it was just after dawn. No lights changed, no cars drove and no people moved, although I was too exhausted to pay it much attention.

I trailed Austin through the garage and elevator, my muscles protesting with every step. I had taken a few hard falls over the course of the evening of course, but it seemed to be more than that. I barely made it into Austin's room when sleepiness utterly overtook me. I wanted to try and make it to the chair, but I settled for lowering myself onto the floor. My last thought before I passed into darkness was a grateful sense of approval that at least the Princes' had chosen carpet for this room.

 

 

I woke up bright sunlight streaming through the window and straight into my eyes. I blinked a few times and tried to get my bearings. I was in a very comfortable bed, certainly not the usual motel bed that I'd become very well acquainted with, in a room that I couldn’t quite place.

I pushed myself up and saw Anne and Cooper sitting at a table near the bed, playing some card game. Anne quickly put her cards down and turned to me as soon as she heard me moving.

“Kate!” Anne said, her voice full of worry. She was wearing a scarf obscuring her face, but I knew that she was making the same face that she always did when I had just skinned a knee or broken up with a boyfriend and it was immensely reassuring.

“Hey,” I said. “No need to worry, I just fell asleep.”

Anne looked over at Cooper, who frowned. “Kate, you've been asleep for over a day,” Anne said.

“No...” I said. There was no way. But both Cooper and Anne nodded at me. Had I really slept for over a day?

I pushed myself all the way up and leaned back against the wall. “Well, I'm fine now.”

Cooper stood up and walked over to the bed. “Did you find out anything?” he asked, unable to keep the desperation out of his tone.

I opened my mouth to tell him about the driving and the castle, but nothing came out. I tried again, but there was no sound.

Cooper looked at me in confusion, but every time that I tried to say anything about the night's events, my voice stopped working. It must have been connected to the castle and Austin's predicament. Eventually I gave up. “I think that I may know,” I said, almost surprising myself with the sound. “But I'm not sure yet.”

Cooper regarded me for a long moment. “Alright,” he said. “You'll stay up with him another night?”

I nodded. He held out his hand and I shook it, the agreement feeling formal.

 

After Cooper left (after arranging to have some sandwiches delivered, which was great because I was starving—apparently sleeping for 30 hours really took it out of me), Anne came over and sat on the edge of my bed.

“Kate, what's going on?” she asked.

“I want to tell you, I really do,” I said. “But I can't. Even when I try.”

Anne frowned and I could tell that she didn't get it.

I tried to think of a way around the magic prohibiting me from talking about where Austin and I had visited. “It's like what happened with you,” I said, which was apparently the right amount of vague to get past the enchantment's censors.

Anne tensed up next to me. “Hey,” I said. “If I can figure out this Austin thing, then I can figure out anything.”

“I don't want to talk about it,” Anne said sharply.

“Sure, of course,” I said, trying not to feel hurt. “That was nice of Cooper.”

“Yeah, he seems like a pretty alright guy,” Anne said and then she went over and got the deck of cards and set about dealing us into a game of gin.

 

 

That night, I prepared myself to go back to Austin's room. I didn't have a huge amount of selection to choose from, but I grabbed the nicest dress that I had. If I were to have any chance at figuring out a way around my enchantment and breaking Austin's curse, I needed to blend in as much as humanely possibly. Or inhumanely possible, as the case may have been.

 

I could tell that Anne didn't want me to go back, but she didn't say anything when I gave her a hug for the night.

“Be safe,” she said, squeezing me harder than normal. I couldn't really promise anything, so I just hugged her back.

 

 

 

It was weird being back in the room with Austin. I hadn't thought it was possible, but he looked even worse than when I had seen him two nights ago. The purple underneath his eyes looked even darker and his cheekbones were even more pronounced. There was no way that Austin was going to be physically capable of continuing this for much longer.

 

Around 11:30, I changed into my dress, before taking my seat and waiting. Again, like before, at midnight exactly, a loud chime went through the house and Austin sat up. He put on a suit, his movements efficient, and then headed out of the room, me trailing behind him.

Like last time, Austin didn't look once at me or even acknowledge my existence. Abstractly, I wondered if the only moments of true consciousness for him were during the dancing.

In the car, I buckled in immediately, although, like before, all of New York City was frozen in time as we drove through it. I still flinched when we got to Central Park and drove through a mess of trees, chestnuts coming down all over me. I grabbed a handful of them and wondered, as I had been too scared to do earlier, if these were actually chestnuts or something more sinister.

This time, when Austin reached the castle, I let him go off by himself. I needed to figure out some way to free him from this castle and the Queen and I wasn't going to find it sitting around while Austin danced the night away.

 

I walked through the castle, not exactly sure what I was looking to find. Maybe there was some magical artifact that I could use to free Austin complete with instructions on how to use it. Maybe someone had conveniently left out a book that explicitly described how to break a curse. Yeah, okay.

 

In the end, none of that mattered because I found something different. I found something better.

 

The farther that I walked into the castle, the more the crowds thinned out until I came to what must have been the actual living quarters of the castle. This area was just as opulent as the front of the castle, but looked slightly more useful—I passed rooms that had beds in them and large cabinets presumably holding things rather than being used as decoration.

No one really looked twice in my direction, but there were still people around, so I made sure to stay to the walls and I tried to look as unassuming as possible as I investigated the rooms.

Finally I came to a room with a small toddler in it along with two older women, ostensibly watching the toddler who was playing with a loudly purring cat and a thin, glittering baton, but instead of actually watching, the women were gossiping amongst themselves about some prince or another. I stayed for a few minutes to listen in case they said anything pertinent about breaking Austin's spell.

 

The women didn't say anything about Austin's spell, although they had plenty to say about the Queen herself. While I listened, hoping that they would say something relevant, I found myself watching the young girl play with the cat and her baton, which the cat seemed to also find mesmerizing.

Suddenly, the toddler thrust the baton three times at cat and then said, “Dog!” in a loud voice. The cat suddenly changed into a dog, which made the child delighted. I froze instantly. It was no baton, it was an actual magical wand.

After a few more seconds of giggling at the dog, the young girl said “Back!” and gestured at the dog. Nothing happened. When nothing continued to happen, the girl started crying causing one of the older women to sigh.

The woman gently took the wand from the girl and waved it at the dog three times. “Back,” she said firmly, and sure enough the dog turned back into a cat, causing the child to start laughing again. The woman looked indulgently at the girl and handed back the girl the wand.

I stood there in shock as my mind made the logical jumps--this wand could be used to turn Anne back. I needed that wand.

Unfortunately, it wasn't like I could just barge in there and take it. I discretely watched the room for a while, trying to figure out the best plan of attack. The two women weren't paying much attention, but if the girl started screaming or kicking up a fuss, then they stopped talking and paid attention to her. So maybe the key was getting the girl to come closer to the door and distracting her with something else.

I looked around me for something to use, but all of the castle decorations were way too large and delicate for me to risk playing around with them. I blew out a deep breath and then it hit me—I had some of those chestnuts from the car in my dress's pockets. I pulled out a small handful and, being careful to stay hidden against the wall, I rolled out some of the nuts into the door entrance way.

For a moment I was sure that this was the stupidest idea that anyone had ever had: throwing chestnuts at a baby? But it got the cat's attention and the cat kind of wiggled its way over to bat at the chestnuts and the girl followed as well, giggling the whole time.

As the cat kept playing with the chestnuts, the girl dropped the wand and started to play with them as well. Leaping on my chance, I leaned forward and gently pulled the wand towards me, my heart pounding so loudly that I felt certain that everyone must have been able to hear it

There was a brief moment when the girl looked over and say me taking the wand. I panicked and threw over the remaining chestnuts in my hand which immediately diverted the young girl's attention. She picked up some of the new ones and promptly put them in her mouth.

Once I was safely back behind the door, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. And that's of course when the screaming started. The little girl began yelling, loudly, screaming the word “wand” over and over again. I could hear the two women inside getting up and making noises, so I took off, running down the hallway.

I was fast, but not fast enough, because one of the women saw me as she approached the door and yelled, “Human! There's a human here!”

Crap. I took the first branch in the hallway that I could and then kept making turns, trying not to leave a clear path. I could hear people yelling throughout the halls, calling to each other about a girl in a blue dress. That was definitely me.

Whenever I saw other people, I hid in the nearest room or behind a door—praying that no one would see me, but there was no way that I was going to be able to make it out of the castle if everyone knew what I looked like.

When I ran past a room that looked like a lived-in bedroom, I stopped and ran back inside. A cursory search revealed a wardrobe. All of the dresses were clearly meant for someone who was a lot taller than I was, but I wasn't in a position to be all that picky. I went with the shortest one, which went all the way to my ankles. I didn't think that carrying the wand around openly was a great idea, so I stuck it down the side of my dress and hoped that I didn't have to do any strenuous side stretches.

 

When I emerged from the room, I realized that I had no idea where I was. I spent what felt like forever trying to find my way through the castle. Unfortunately, by the time that I made it back to dancing hall, the night was almost over.

I saw Austin lying on one of the couches. He looked terrible, exhausted beyond all imagination. Just looking at him made me feel sick.

I stood there, in the crowd, just watching him, as an attendant brought him some of the same electric blue liquid that Austin drank down. The attendant frowned at Austin and then disappeared again. As soon as the attendant was gone, Austin looked over in my direction, finding me instantly in the crowd. So much for being subtle.

I took my chances and snuck over to where he lay. “You again,” Austin said, sounding surprised. I was impressed that he remembered me. Austin sucked in a deep breath and my own chest hurt in sympathy. “This is a bad idea.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” I said.

Austin sighed. “They're looking for you. Whatever you did, it pissed them off. They'll kill you. Or worse.”

Like killing me slowly by making me dance to exhaustion every night, I thought. Or maybe that was the nice way of killing you. I didn't especially want to find out. “That's not important,” I said. “I need to know if there's any way to break whatever hold that they've got on you.”

Austin's eyes flicked up. “You've got to get away from here,” he said.

“But what about you?” I said. 

“There's nothing you can do,” Austin said. As he said it, I saw the grim acceptance in his eyes. He knew what was happening to him and he couldn't stop it. 

“Get away,” Austin said forcefully. I saw the attendant approaching and immediately turned around. 

I let myself get lost in the crowd, figuring that there was safety in its anonymity. I made it out to the edge of the room and sat down in one of the partially obscured corners before I started crying. 

Eventually, I got myself under control and forced myself back into the crowd. A few times, I saw vaguely guard-type people moving through the crowd and did my best to keep my back to them. I also tried to listen in on the conversations around me, hoping that I would hear something that could help me. 

Instead, I heard a lot of gossip about the royal family who lived in the castle—what they ruled over, I had no idea—but everyone had a lot to say about them, especially of our hostess, the Queen. Apparently she was petty, whimsical, aloof, mischievous, vindictive and ruled her kingdom with absolute might. Fantastic. 

By the time that the dawn chime sounded in the castle, I was no closer to figuring out how to help Austin, although I did have the wand. Maybe it could be the key to both Anne's predicament and Austin's. 

 

 

 

When we made it back to the Princes' townhouse, I felt the utter exhaustion settle in once again as I stumbled back to Austin's room. Austin managed to get off his clothes and into his standard boxers and t-shirt before passing out in his bed, which I wearily struggled with the dress. 

Eventually, feeling myself start to sink down, I gave up on the dress and made my way to the bed. "Speak up if you have any objections," I said, giving a small hiccup of a laugh, before I lay down and everything faded out once again. 

 

When I woke up this time, I had been moved from Austin’s bed to Anne’s. I felt bone-tired as I lay there for a few minutes, light only barely filtering in through the curtains. Anne and Cooper were next to the bed, playing cards again. They'd moved onto cribbage, by the sound of it, and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Cooper was faintly smiling—the first time that I'd seen him smile non-sardonically since I we met in the Starbucks. Even Anne's posture looked loose. Maybe they'd bonded over their siblings. I waited a few minutes, not wanting to disturb them just yet.

“Full day?” I asked. Both Anne and Cooper startled at my voice and I saw Anne give a large sigh of relief. 

“You know it,” she said and there was something in her voice that was relaxed, as if she'd lost some of the tension from the past few months. “Guess you really needed some beauty sleep.” 

“Ha ha,” I said. I gingerly got out of bed. I was still wearing the dress that I'd picked up in the castle--dark green with long sleeves and cutouts up near the top. Cooper gave a pointed look at the dress that I ignored. 

“Anne, can I talk to you alone for a second?” I asked. Anne said yes, sounding a little confused. She turned for a second towards Cooper, who was looking at Anne. Cooper quirked his eyebrow but didn't say anything, and for a second, I wondered just what had happened while I had been out. Before I could follow that thought, Cooper got up and left the room, leaving just the two of us. 

“I'm going to try something,” I said after Cooper closed the door. 

“Try what?” Anne started to ask, but she stopped talking when she saw me reach down the side of my dress, pulling out the wand. I waved it in Anne's direction three times and then loudly said, “back.” 

Nothing happened for a moment and then Anne inhaled sharply. “Ow,” she said, her body contorting slightly. “Ow, ow.” She began pulling at the scarf on her face until it came off. There was a gentle shimmering around Anne's head, as if I were looking through an opaque window, making it impossible to see Anne's face. For a second, I knew that it was working, but then Anne kept making little sounds as if she were in pain and the panic set in.

“Are you ok?” I asked.  Maybe I had gotten it all wrong—the cat definitely hadn't seemed to be in pain after turning back from a dog. What if I had just made it worse?

“Yes,” Anne gutted out. “It’s just—ah—it’s weird. It feels weird.” She gave a particularly loud yelp as the shimmering around Anne’s head intensified and then began to fade away. 

The first thing that I saw was the side of Anne's head--she'd lost the white fur and had human looking ears again. 

  
“Anne,” I said slowly. 

“What is it?” Anne said, turning towards me, panting slightly. And it was Anne—actually Anne—back with her normal eyes and normal nose and absolutely no white fur anywhere. 

I threw myself at her. “You're back!”

“I'm what?” Anne said. I half dragged her into the bathroom, tearing up, until she got inside and saw her reflection. Then she also started tearing up as she gently felt all around her face. 

“Oh my god,” she kept saying. 

“I know,” I said. Anne pulled me in for a hug and it wasn't a worried hug or a half-hug or any of the things that Anne had given me since the change. It was a full Anne hug in all of her Anne glory. 

This may have been when I started actually crying. 

 

Eventually I distangled myself and went to Austin's room. I tried doing the same thing with the wand, but nothing happened. I couldn't say that I was too surprised. For completeness’ sake, I tried a few variations before I gave up and carefully sat on the bed. Austin looked terrible. Really terrible. He wouldn't be able to do this much longer. 

I abstractly wondered what would happen if he collapsed for good in the castle—would there be any way of getting him home? Probably not, as I doubted those people cared whether or not Austin made it out in one piece. Eventually I sighed and left.

 

When I went back to the room, Anne had calmed down enough to ask questions about how I was able to turn her back. Whatever magic that kept me from talking about the castle, it made it difficult to explain, but I did my best. I'm not sure that I made a lot of sense, but Anne nodded and went along with it, so I suppose that was the important thing. 

“So wherever you got this thing from,” Anne said. “You have to go back again?”

I nodded. “Yeah, if I don't, then Austin...” 

Anne nodded and I knew that she got it. Anne leaned back and let herself flop against the bed. “Hey, come here,” she said and pulled me down so I was also lying on the bed. 

“Thank you,” Anne said. “For everything.”

“I'm sorry that I couldn't fix it sooner,” I said. 

“Hey,” Anne said. “This was never your fault.”

I was quiet for a few seconds. “But it was my mother.”

“Not your fault,” Anne said definitively and it was just so Anne that I couldn't help but smile. 

 

I wore the dark green dress again that night since I didn’t have anything else that would be remotely appropriate. I followed Austin through the same song and dance as the two previous times until we arrived at the castle. 

 

I was careful as I snuck around the castle, but I couldn't find anything that could help me. There were no libraries, no mysterious artifacts, nothing that seemed reasonably helpful. So I went back to the main hall and waited until Austin needed a break. 

 

As soon as the attendant disappeared, I pounced. “Do you know anything about how to break this,” I said. 

Austin blinked blearily at me, his eyes unfocused. “Austin, this is really important,” I said.

Austin blinked a few more times before he focused in on me. “Who are you?”

“I'm Kate,” I said. “But we don't have much time. Do you know how to break this spell?”

Austin looked faintly nauseous. “No. They're coming back.”

I began inching away. “Anything could be helpful,” I said, urgently. “Anything at all.”

“The food,” Austin said abruptly and locked eyes with me. “They never let me have the food.” I started walking backwards, away from him, but unable to look away.

 

 

I stupidly hadn't brought a purse or a bag, so I was forced to use my dress to carry food. I silently apologized to the makers of this fine garment as I filled the bottom half with some of everything that I could find. I wasn't sure if any of the food would be helpful or one particular  dish, so I tried to find some of everything. I grabbed a chicken drumstick, a turkey leg, a swan wing, a few of the carrots, small handfuls of the sweets—anything and everything that I saw that could be transported. I wasn’t sure that Austin had two more nights in him. 

On the way back, I sat carefully to make sure that I didn’t ruin my careful assembly. It was only when we got up to his room, the familiar exhaustion setting in, that I realized that I had a problem—I needed to get Austin to eat the food. 

“Austin,” I said. He didn't respond as he quickly undressed. “Austin,” I tried again. No response. 

I trudged over to the bed, desperation driving me past the exhaustion. Austin slipped beneath the covers. I sat on the bed next to him, trying to keep my eyelids open. I felt the pinprick of tears—I was so tired, I just wanted to sleep, but I needed Austin to try the food. I needed this to work or else this was it. If I went to sleep, there was a good chance that I would wake up to find Austin permanently gone.

“You've got to eat this,” I said, and brought the chicken drumstick up to Austin's mouth. I pulled off a small piece and opened his mouth and put it inside it. 

Nothing happened, and for a moment I wondered if I was actually going to accidentally kill Austin by making him choke to death. 

“Please?” I said, as if Austin could somehow hear me. 

But then, almost magically, I saw Austin’s jaw working and he started slowly chewing it. 

“More,” he said, after swallowing, his voice raspy. He hadn’t opened his eyes, but it didn’t matter. I pinched off another small piece and put it in Austin’s mouth. He chewed that as well. “More,” he said, his voice slightly firmer. I put another piece in his mouth, which he chewed. 

I had another piece ready to go when Austin swallowed. However this time, he didn’t ask for another piece. Instead, he opened his eyes and stared at me.  It was the first time that he’d looked at me outside the castle and his eyes were clear and alert. I knew that whatever enchantment the Queen and castle held over Austin, it was gone and I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. 

“Kate?” Austin said, a wondering tone in his voice. I couldn’t stop looking at him—I restrained myself from reaching out to touch him further and reassure myself that the Queen’s hold over him was really gone.

"Yes," I said and then promptly passed out. 

 

When I woke up, it was in Austin’s bed, although I was by myself. I opened my eyes to the now familiar sight of mid-day light streaming in through the window. I could feel that I was still in the same green dress, although thankfully, someone had removed the food that I had brought back. 

Austin sat at the table near the bed, reading a book. He still looked thin—too thin—but he looked so much better. Like he'd received proper hydration and nutrition. I felt a wave of relief wash through me. 

When Austin saw that I was awake, he quickly put the book down and came to stand next to the bed. 

“Kate?” he said. 

“Yep, that's me,” I said, or tried to say. My voice came out as little more than a rasp. I coughed and Austin quickly handed me some water which I drank down. I realized that I had an IV in my arm. 

 “It's nice to finally meet you,” Austin said. 

“We’ve kind of met before,” I mumbled. Austin gave me a slightly confused look. “Um, just in passing. You were a senior and I was a freshmen at Columbia in business.”

“Yeah?” Austin said, smiling at me. I felt myself redden slightly and I nodded. “Well, I'm glad that we got to meet in more thorough circumstances,” he said, making me laugh a little bit, even though my throat instantly regretted it.

“How long was I out?” I asked. 

“About a week,” Austin said. “You had everyone pretty worried. We all took turns to make sure you weren't going anywhere at night.”

“A week?” I said. “I’ve been out for a week. That’s...” Ridiculous, I was going to say and then realized that Austin had just spent the better part of half a year sleeping all the time.

“Crazy?” Austin said, and we both laughed. “I'm going to go get your sister,” Austin said. 

“Wait,” I said. Austin instantly stopped and came back. I wasn't sure how to ask what I needed to know. I couldn’t stop thinking about how Austin could be handling this. Every night being forced to dance, knowing that he was slowly dying, with no way to escape it. I remembered the look of acceptance in his eyes on the second night. “Are you...ok?”

Austin looked at me. For a long moment, it was just the two of us, back in the castle, me crouching next to the couch. Then Austin gave me a wry half-smile. “I don't know,” Austin said. “Coop doesn’t really get it. But I think that I will be.”

I nodded and Austin reached down to squeeze my hand. “What about you?” Austin said. “Are you ok?”

I let my hand rest against his, closing my eyes briefly. I don't think I’d ever been so tired in my entire life, but it was worth it, all worth it.

“Yes,” I said, not bothering to open my eyes. 

“I’m going to call your sister in here,” Austin said, sounding faintly amused. I felt him leave and just lay there until I heard the sounds of someone running down the hallway. I opened my eyes and scooted up in the bed into a sitting position just as Anne bounded into the room. 

“Kate,” Anne said, as she pretty much threw herself around me. I hugged her back. “Never again,” she said, trying to be serious, but she looked so happy to see me, she couldn't pull it off. 

“Never again,” I agreed, smiling back at her. Cooper and Austin entered the room a few seconds later. Cooper’s eyes tracked Anne and Anne looked up at him from where she was half suffocating me, a huge smile on her face. Something passed between them and I couldn't help but be happy for Anne. 

“Whatever you want,” Cooper said, turning his attention to me. I couldn't help but laugh. Anne was back to normal and, when I snuck a look back at Austin, he was smiling at me as well. Maybe Anne and I couldn’t go home, but I felt pretty sure that we could handle the future just fine.


End file.
